Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic : Which Is Better?

Scalable Capital or Trade Republic, Which Trading Platform is Better? In this guide I compare both of these trading app’s functions, costs and services. By the End of the guide you would be able to figure out which broker is best, Trade Republic or Scalable Capital!

Why Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic?

You might ask, why just these two, aren’t there any other options? Well the answer is quite simple, these are two of the best trading platforms in Germany.

Not only are both comission free brokers but also provide amazing features. Like Free Investing in ETFs using Savings plans, a large selection of Stocks and auto tax handling. Yes both Scalable Capital and Trade Republic automatically handle your stock and ETF taxes.

So if both of these Trading platforms are great then what differentiates them? This is the exact question we want to answer in this guide as we compare Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic.

Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic a quick comparison

Short on time? Here is a quick comparision of Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic

Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic: Top Differences

The differences between Scalable Capital and Trade Republic are what really matter when you’re trying to decide which platform is best for you. In my opinion the major difference came down to the impression that Trade Republic is designed for more casual investors within Germany while Scalable Capital is a for people who want to have the freedom to use the broker from anywhere in Europe. But obviously its not as black and white as that so lets have a look at the comparison of individual aspects. I have complete guides on How to open an account with Trade Republic , how to open an account with scalable capital and a Trade republic guide for beginners if you are interested in either of the two brokers

User Interface : Does Trade Republic actually have a better UI than Scalable Capital?

Looks matter, that basic human Psychology. When it comes to looks, the user interface or the UI actually matters more than you think. Thankfully both Trade Republic and Scalable Capital have a great UI.

Looking at the two user interfaces, both look pretty similar. Sure they do but objectively speaking people want to know about their portolio performance as soon as they open their app. This is exactly what Trade Republic is offering. You open the app and BAM! you have your portfolio valio and the daily performance and after that you can scroll down to see the individual investments.

Scalable Capital on the other hand has a lesser emphasis on your portfolio valuation. This is mainly because they offer additional services. Like their wealth management advisor along with their broker. That said you might like the Scalable capital app just because of this specific reason.

Previously Trade Republic only offered a mobile app but recently they also started offering their services via a Web app. Scalable capital on the other hand, alway had a web app along with its mobile app.

Both the platforms are evolving with time. I remember the Trade Republic app in 2020, it was filled with bugs and errors. But now the app is miles better within a short amount of time.

Securities Exchanges Used: Does using two exchanges Give Scalable Capital an advantage?

What exactly is the meaning of a Securities Exchange? According to wikipedia:

A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse, is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds, and other financial instruments.

Stock and ETF orders of Trade Republic customers are routed through Lang & Schwarz Exchange, an electronic trading system operated at Hamburg Stock Exchange (“Börse Hamburg”). Börse Hamburg is a publicly regulated exchange under supervision of the Finanzbehörde Hamburg. Lang & Schwarz TradeCenter AG & Co. KG acts as the market maker to this exchange.

Let me break down the above paragraph for you. Trade Republic uses the Land & Schwarz as a market maker to buy and sell all the Stocks and ETFs you see in the app. The Hamburg Stock exchange which is a publically regulated exchange is used by the market maker (a dealer in securities or other assets who undertakes to buy or sell at specified prices at all times) being Lang & Schwarz for Trade Republic to finalize the orders.

Scalable Capital offers the largest German exchange

Scalable Capital on the other hand uses GETTEX and XETRA. Xetra is a trading venue operated by Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse based in Frankfurt, Germany. Gettex on the other hand, is a fully electronic direct trading system by the Munich Stock Exchange.

Even though Scalable Capital offers access to XETRA, trading through it is not cheap as you have to pay extra for your order to be processed even if you have the paid programs.

In my opinion which exchange the broker uses generally doesnt make a huge difference. Some stocks and ETFs might be available on one exchange and might not be availalbe on the other. So I do not think using two exchanges actually gives Scalable capital an advantage. In my experience most of Popular stocks and ETFs are available at Lang & Schwarz and Gettex.

Stocks and ETFs offered: Does offering 7500 Stocks give Trade Republic an edge over Scalable Capital?

Trade Republic is offering 7500 Stocks and 1500 ETFs at the moment. Scalable Capital on the other hand offers 6000 stocks and 1900 ETFs. Not all of the 6000 stocks offered on Scalable Capital are available however on the free plan. Some stocks are available on the paid plans only.

Both the brokers handle Stock and ETF taxes for you, so each time you sell a stock or ETF you tax information is automatically sent to the finanzamt, profits and losses are auto adjusted.

Here is a list of all the stocks and ETFs offered by Trade Republic. For Scalable Capital I couldnt find a list of stocks they offer. However, here is a list of all the ETFs Scalable Capital is providing at the moment.

Here too the brilliant User Interface of Trade Republic gives an edge over Scalable Capital as you can search stocks based on Sector, Country and Region. Additionally I did find some penny stocks on Trade Republic which were not found on Scalable Capital. In that way, the 1500 additional stocks offered by Trade Republic is a better offering in my opinion.

Cryptocurrency selection: Are ETPs from Scalable Capital better than the crypto from Trade Republic?

When it comes to Crypto, both Trade Republic and Scalable capital aren’t traditional crypto exchanges. You cannot use the crypto bought with them as currency because you cannot move the crypto outside the brokers to an external wallet.

Scalable Capital offers Crypto trading based on exchange-traded crypto products (ETPs). You might be asking:

What are ETPs that Scalable Capital is offering?

Crypto Exchange-Traded Products, or “Crypto ETPs” for short, track the performance of an underlying cryptocurrency. For example, when an ETP has no issuer costs, it could allow you to profit from the crypto performance. Like a Bitcoin ETP, minus the issuer’s product costs, offers the opportunity to participate in the performance of Bitcoin. With Scalable Crypto you trade cryptocurrencies similar to stocks or ETFs on regulated trading venues (Xetra, gettex) in Germany.

At Scalable Crypto, all crypto ETPs are physically collateralized. When investing in physically collateralized Crypto ETPs, the issuer deposits the equivalent value of the investment in the corresponding cryptocurrency with a regulated depository.

Hence, trading takes place on regulated exchanges such as gettex or Xetra. Your coins are physically deposited with a regulated crypto custodian. Trading hours of exchanges apply when trading ETPs. So you can only trade crypto on Scalable Capital between 08:00 and 22:00 on Trading days. Order placement on the other hand is possible from 00:15 to 23:30. Currently CoinShares is the official ETP partner of Scalable Capital.

As Scalable Capital is offering crypto as ETPs , the best thing here is that taxes are automatically deducted via the custodian bank when crypto ETPs are sold so you do not need to do anything at all when it comes to cryptocurrency taxes!

Trade Republic Does not offer ETPs

This is true for the time being, but all the crypto you buy is actually held by a third party custodian which is BitGo Deutschland GmbH at the moment for Trade Republic. Here again you cannot move your crypto or use it as a payment but unlike Scalable Capital you do not have to trade crypto within market trading hours. So you can Buy or sell when ever you want.

Unlike Scalable Capital, Trade Republic does not handle crypto taxes at the moment. So you will have to do your taxes on your own if you trade Crypto with Trade Republic. May be in the future Trade Republic could introduce ETPs as well or even start doing taxes for their customers who trade crypto only time will tell.

Speaking purely in terms of filing taxes for Crypto in Germany, ETPs offered by Scalable Capital are better than the crypto offered by Trade Republic. On the other hand not being able to Trade Crypto when the market is closed is something I believe not many crypto fans would like.

Trading Hours: Do the extra 90 minutes from Trade Republic make it better than Scalable Capital?

Investors generally know that all the Major Stock Exchanges have standard trading hours. These are set time periods each day when the exchanges are open and trading occurs through them. In the United States at the  New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or  Nasdaq, the trading hours are from 09:30 to 16:00 Eastern Time. But trading also occurs outside those times too, but thats a topic for some other time.

Markets are closed on Weekends and other Holidays. The trading hours for buying and selling stocks & ETFs on Trade Republic are from 07:30 till 23:00. On Scalable Capital the trading hours are between 08:00 and 22:00. Here Trade Republic has extra 90 minutes of trading time. These extra 90 minutes actually make a huge difference, specially in days with high volatility.

Payment Options: Is the paid plan from Scalable Capital Better than Trade Republic?

Trade Republic and Scalable Capital, both a Commission free brokers. Trade Republic has a flat 1 Euro Fee each time you give a Buy or a Sell order. Scalable Capital on the other hand has both Free and Paid plans .

In the Free plan you pay 99cents for each buy or sell order if you select the Gettex exchange. If you select the Xetra exchange you pay a minimum fee of 5.49€ which can increase based on your order.

With the two paid plans you either pay 2.99 or 4.99€ a month. Here All orders above 250€ are free of cost if you select the Gettex exchange. With Xetra you still have a minimum fee of 5.49€.

Free Savings plan on Trade Republic and Scalable Capital

Savings plans are free of cost on Both Scalable Capital and Trade Republic. There are 1500 ETFs and 2500 Stocks with which you can setup a Savings plan on Trade Republic. You can start with a minimum of 10€ per savings plan. Each plan can start from the 2nd or 16th of the month and you can set the execution frequency to bimonthly, monthly or Quarterly.

There are 1900 ETFs and 6000 Stocks with which you can setup a savings plan on Scalable Capital but not all of the 6000 stocks are available in the free plan. Here you can start with a minimum of 1€ . The plan can start from 9 different days in the month and the frequency can be set to monthly, every 2 months or quarterly.

Funding Options: Is adding Funds in Trade Republic faster than Scalable Capital?

With Trade Republic you can buy Stocks, ETFs, Crypto and Execute Savings plans if you have money in your Trade Republic account. To deposit funds you can use Credit card, Google pay or Bank Transfer. So this can take from a couple of minutes to a couple of days to get money in your account.

With Scalable Capital you can either buy using the Cash balance in your account which you can deposit using a Bank Transfer or use a SEPA direct debit from your account. Both methods need between 1 to 4 days to add payment to your account.

The option of credit card and Google Pay definitely brings a benefit to Trade Republic as you can easily and quickly add Funds. Compared to Scalable Capital where you need to wait at least 1 day for your funds to arrive.

Customer Support: Is Contacting support at Scalable Capital easier compared to Trade Republic?

Both of the Brokers offer Support to their clients. Trade republic has a smart contact form where you type questions and the AI tries to find pre written solution, and if there is no specific answer available then you can use their contact form to get support.

Scalable captal has a telephone number +49 (0) 89 380 380 67 where you can directly call are get support or you can use a Chat bot available on the website which can initially give you AI based answers and if your answer is not available, connect you to a customer service provider in the chat. You can also contact both of these brokers using their Social Media accounts. I have found Twitter to be the fastest method to reach Scalable Capital and Trade Republic. Being in Germany I think calling someone by phone is actually a plus so, in that regards Contacting Scalable Capital IS infact easier compared to Trade Republic.

Common Problems: Is it possible to open an Account with Trade Republic without German Nationality?

People often ask me how I opened an account with Trade Republic without a German Passport? There is a misconception that Trade Republic only accepts people from a limited number of Nationalities to open an account with them. This is far from the Truth! Yes there are certain Nationalities which are not accepted with Trade Republic but this is true with Scalable Capital too.

So to answer the question, Is it possible to open an Account with Trade Republic without German Nationality I say yes it is totally possible.

Account Verification with Scalable Capital vs Trade Republic

As Scalable Capital and Trade Republic are Financial elements, they need to comply with Certain regulations. For this complience each user needs to verify their Identity in order to open an Account with Trade Republic and Scalable Capital.

Scalable Capital uses PostIdent for the verification process. My application for Scalable Capital was rejected three times before it was accepted. It wasnt because of Scalable Capital, it was actually due to PostIdent.

Trade Republic uses WEBID for the verification process. My application with WEBID was accepted with my first attempt. I will try to find an attach a complete list of countries what are accepted with Trade Republic and Scalable Capital soon, so that you can know if you can open an account with Trade Republic or Scalable capital with your nationality.

Which is the best online broker in Germany?

The key question is which broker will give you the best deal. Trade Republic has the edge when it comes to the looks, and Scalable Capital is a more complete trading platform with better fees and customer support. Scalable Capital and Trade Republic both offer amazing commission free options if you are in the market for a change from your High Fee induced broker account at a traditional bank. In my opinion Trade Republic is the best online broker in Germany!

Conclusion: Is Scalable Capital better than Trade Republic?

Both brokers offer amazing options, One has great costs the other has a brilliant app. For me the Beautiful UI of Trade Republic makes it my first choice. That said I use both the platforms and am totally satisfied. So you dont have to pick one, you can register with both a see which you like the most. Which ever you decide dont forget to use my links to register with Trade Republic and Scalable Capital if you want to support me. Additionally you might get some special offer at no extra costs to you.

One thing to remember is that Both of these Brokers are constantly working on Improving their platforms and consistently updating or adding new features, so if anything changes update this guide accordingly.

Disclaimer: None of the content in this article is meant to be considered as investment advice, as I am not a financial expert and am only sharing my experience with stock investing. The information is based on my own research and is only accurate at the time of posting this article but may not be accurate at the time you are reading it.